A few years ago, this would have been neither controversial nor necessary to say. But here we are.
The fascist tenets of nationalism and racial superiority, the crushing of individual rights and freedoms, and the suppression of dissenting voices through intimidation and force are in absolute opposition to the mission of journalism. That they directly oppose the Constitution and its ideals (realized or not) is lately necessary to state as well, as we watch those sworn to protect it embrace fascism with alarming enthusiasm.
The Trump administration has trampled due process in its frenzied and racist deployment of ICE, literal masked thugs racially profiling and grabbing brown people off the streets. The campaign promise of deporting criminals has unsurprisingly grown into a purge of immigrants in general, the threatening of naturalized citizenship and an unmasked effort to strip our country down to a white, Christian extremist shadow of itself. It is an impossible right-wing fever dream, but one for which the president and his cadre are willing to harm us all in pursuit of.
That the federal government has met opposition to its agenda with a militarized and propaganda-driven campaign against the First Amendment is also classically fascist. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s attempt to force Pentagon correspondents to sign pledges that they could only report only information he released left him with a stack of rejected press passes — even from his alma mater Fox News. That he tried it at all, and that it falls in line with the White House’s transactional approach to the press, is chilling.
Fox and its right-wing media brethren have been happy enough, however, to spread propaganda painting Portland as a war zone requiring National Guard troops, riot police and, naturally, more ICE presence. Laughable as that thesis is in the face of footage of lines for brunch, peaceful protests and inflatable costume menageries, it’s seen enough success among those in propaganda bubbles (possibly the president himself) to continue the charade. The goal is not to put out nonexistent fires in the streets, but to suppress protest and make people, journalists among them, afraid to speak publicly or even document for fear of rubber bullets, pepper balls, truncheons and worse. Likewise, declaring the Antifa movement as a terrorist organization (a label that somehow missed the Ku Klux Klan) is not about keeping Americans safe, but keeping us scared to align against fascism.
Regarding his executive order circumventing a standing U.S. Supreme Court decision protecting flag burning as freedom of expression and setting a one-year prison sentence for the declared offence, President Trump said, “We took the freedom of speech away because that’s been through the courts and the courts said, you have freedom of speech but what has happened is when they burn a flag, it agitates and irritates crowds. I’ve never seen anything like it on both sides. And you end up with riots.” Legally enforceable or not, it is as clear a message as can be made in response to dissent: “We took the freedom of speech away.”
That is, it’s only slightly clearer that the president’s response to Saturday’s No Kings II protests across the country: an AI video of himself in a crown, dropping shit on his protesting constituents from a fighter jet.
Still paradoxically billing itself as “the party of free speech,” many of the Republicans in power are systematically crushing the First Amendment down to powder. (Though most of the party’s loudest First Amendment advocates have long seemed more concerned with public backlash for racism and misogyny than actual government censorship or retaliation.) And still waving the flag they purport to protect, they ask us to bow to a Napoleonic president in a crown.
Humboldt’s No Kings II protest on Saturday was peaceful. And ICE has yet to show up in force here. But there is no reason beyond the habit of complacency to think they won’t come as they have in other counties. That organizations working with those most at risk are setting up support networks for this eventuality should make the reality clear.
This paper is anti-fascist because it cannot be otherwise. Its purpose is to inform and celebrate Humboldt’s communities and the multitudes they contain. It seeks to lift up the arts and the free expression of our personal and collective souls — visual, musical, culinary, performance, literary and whatever new form someone is hunkered down and conceptualizing right now. Journalism’s oft repeated goals, to give voice to the voiceless and hold those in power accountable, make it a target of fascism.
To say nothing does not make us safe — not our community or our families, and not those who work for this paper. Refraining from naming the forces that encroach on our freedoms does not shield us from them. Pretending at objectivity or neutrality does not absolve us of our responsibilities, especially to those most under threat. The more dangerous it is to say it, the more vital it is to say, if only to each other and the people we need to protect.
This paper is anti-fascist. It cannot be otherwise.
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the managing editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400 ext. 106, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Bluesky
@jfumikocahill.bsky.social.
This article appears in No Kings II.
Sometimes when you’re in an echo chamber, you don’t realize you are suppressing dissenting views because you so rarely have to do so. You just decide they are wrong. When billboards supporting Israel appeared, they were forced down by vandals; did the Journal complain, as part of its defense of freedom of speech?